Rating: B
Dir: Richard Somes
Star: Arjo Atayde, Julia Montes, Sid Lucero, Bernard Palanca
a.k.a. Topakk
There aren’t many times a title change from the native works for the better, but this might be one. The original comes from the Tagalog street slang for crazy, but with an extra K for the dual personality of the hero. Miguel Vergara (Atayde) is a former soldier, suffering from PTSD, after becoming the sole survivor of a patrol attacked by religious insurgents. He has started a new job as a night watchman, when he is interrupted by Weng Diwata (Montes) and her brother, fleeing a semi-official death squad. They just wiped out a nest of drug dealers operating out of a funeral home, leaving the siblings a loose end to be tidied up.
When the men under the command of Romero (Lucero) show up, their actions bring on Miguel’s PTSD. Might you say he is… Triggered? The resulting carnage is long, intense and makes excellent use of the industrial warehouse location, and its contents. For death by fan blade, F-sized table saw and chain follow, typically accompanied by plenty of the red stuff. It isn’t quite as brutal as Indonesian flicks like The Night Comes for Us, mostly because the editing is a little too kinetic, rather than lingering on the results. However, it has its moments, and I enjoyed how Weng ends up more or less speed-running the same psychological route as Miguel. By the time this finishes, she’s smashing heads and impaling people, right alongside him.
I also appreciated the insight into the murky world of Filipino law-enforcement, where justice takes a back seat to plausible deniability. Romero is actually an interesting character. He and his squad pause for prayer before going out on their murderous assignment, and you get the sense he genuinely believes in the righteousness of his mission. I can kinda see his point there, to be honest. However, to those above him, he is just a tool, to be discarded – with extreme prejudice – at the first sign of blowback. Which is why Weng cannot be allowed to escape alive. She would expose the lie of the official explanation, that all the corpses turning up, are the result of a struggle for supremacy between rival drug gangs. Not government vigilantes at all: dear me, no.
The end credits proclaim how the movie is dedicated to ‘all the brave soldiers who forever bear the scars of war’. Seems a bit of a stretch, considering this is much more gleeful exploitation of their trauma, rather than a sober depiction of veterans’ struggles with mental health issues. Given the way Miguel’s PTSD turns him into an unstoppable fighting machine, viewers may be forgiven for wondering where they can sign up. Moral qualms aside – and I had little difficulty in that department – this is a nasty, brutal action film, from the jungle opening to the rain-drenched finale, with more than its “Phil” of blood. Thank you, I’ll be here all week. Try the veal and tip your waitress.
This is part of our World in Action feature, covering action movies around the globe.